Industrial & Engineering Chemistry Research
Industrial & Engineering Chemistry Research
5 years ago

Mechanical Properties of Microcellular and Nanocellular Thermoplastic Polyurethane Nanocomposite Foams Created Using Supercritical Carbon Dioxide

Mechanical Properties of Microcellular and Nanocellular Thermoplastic Polyurethane Nanocomposite Foams Created Using Supercritical Carbon Dioxide
Shu-Kai Yeh, Sea-Fue Wang, Chien-Chia Chu, Kung-Chin Chang, Yu-Che Liu
In this study, the mechanical properties of submicrocellular or nanocellular thermoplastic polyurethane (TPU) nanocomposite foams were investigated via batch foaming using CO2 as the blowing agent. Cloisite 30B nanoclay (clay 30B) was the nucleation agent. Adding clay 30B and foaming at 60 °C resulted in a nanocellular foam. A cell size of 450 nm and a cell density of 1011 cells/cm3 were obtained. The relative density of the foam was within the range 0.9–0.95. The modulus of the foamed samples was found to be proportional to their relative density regardless of their structure (microcellular/submicrocellular). The results indicated that the modulus of the foamed samples with a cell size larger than 400 nm decreased with foam density. However, to our surprise, although adding only 1 wt % of nanoclay reduced the foam density, an increase in the modulus was observed. In addition, the cells became small and uniform.

Publisher URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1021/acs.iecr.7b00942

DOI: 10.1021/acs.iecr.7b00942

You might also like
Discover & Discuss Important Research

Keeping up-to-date with research can feel impossible, with papers being published faster than you'll ever be able to read them. That's where Researcher comes in: we're simplifying discovery and making important discussions happen. With over 19,000 sources, including peer-reviewed journals, preprints, blogs, universities, podcasts and Live events across 10 research areas, you'll never miss what's important to you. It's like social media, but better. Oh, and we should mention - it's free.

  • Download from Google Play
  • Download from App Store
  • Download from AppInChina

Researcher displays publicly available abstracts and doesn’t host any full article content. If the content is open access, we will direct clicks from the abstracts to the publisher website and display the PDF copy on our platform. Clicks to view the full text will be directed to the publisher website, where only users with subscriptions or access through their institution are able to view the full article.